You know how it is as a teenager … you don’t know which college will accept you. You don’t know if that guy you have a crush on will like you. And then this:

The conductor, Shalom Riklis, said to me: ‘Listen, you don’t know how to play and you don’t know how to read music, but we’re missing a second oboist. If you can fit in, fine – if not, to the artillery.